HR and Benefits CLE & CPE

The Department of Labor Regulations on disclosure of 401(k) plan fees and expenses are designed to provide transparency to participants in a user-friendly format, allowing for an apples-to-apples comparison of fees and expenses under a plan’s investment options that impact participant account balances, and a look under the hood on plan administration costs charged to participant accounts.  But greater disclosure can lead to greater scrutiny, and an essential duty for plan sponsors is monitoring fees and expenses that could reduce participant account balances, and timely addressing excesses.

The past years have seen changing tides on the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) litigation landscape. The number of lawsuits filed in federal courts, which chiefly stemmed from alleged violations on websites and mobile application accessibility, has continuously increased. As regulatory developments and court decisions are yet to unfold, the ADA litigation landscape remains uncertain. Thus, businesses and their counsel must keep themselves in the know of any emerging update in this field of law. They must also revisit their practices to ensure ADA compliance and dodge potential lawsuits.

Numerous policy changes and trends concerning wage and hour have made the landscape more complicated and challenging. Recently, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the US Department of Labor (DOL) released six opinion letters which aimed to address a raft of issues under the Fair Labor and Standards Act (FLSA).

Group health plans are governed by a number of state and federal laws including, but not limited to, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA).

In response to the economic challenges brought by the COVID-19 crisis to the executive compensation landscape, significant enforcement actions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and International Shareholders Services (ISS) concerning design, implementation, and disclosure are expected to bring complexities to businesses.

With today’s major economic recession faced by businesses due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) continues to be an attractive option for companies seeking to address the need for succession planning to sustain competitive advantage in the market and looking to provide their employees with an ownership interest through a retirement plan.

The ever-changing landscape of non-compete law continues to give rise to significant developments that companies need to be aware of. Recently, several new state laws have been adopted to limit non-compete agreements’ enforceability, thus, further complicating matters for employers. At the federal level, the Freedom to Compete Act has been introduced in the Senate to prohibit non-compete pacts for minimum wage earners. Moreover, with a pandemic in the backdrop, many other issues have also emerged.

Over the past years, employee arbitration agreements have been helpful in preventing employment-related lawsuits. If properly executed, arbitration clauses provide several benefits to both employers and employees. These benefits include the resolution of claims away from the public, the ability to select the arbitrator, and the faster process by which conflicts are resolved. Arbitration of claims is also significant in redirecting employment-related cases from overburdened courts.

Our HR and Benefits webinars offer a wealth of information about crucial issues today's professionals face. These Continuing Education (CE) courses are a reflection of the most recent regulatory developments in HR and benefits management at the state and federal levels.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) are continuously taking initiatives to improve each agency’s law enforcement, specifically against employee misclassification. Guided by their standards, the DOL and the NLRB aggressively enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) respectively to expand the scope of classifying joint employers while narrowing the scope of categorizing independent contractors.

The evolving business environment and the economic fluctuations prompted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continue to affect the implementation and design of executive compensation. In its recent move to tighten regulations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 120 which underscores a new and more aggressive focus on executive compensation issues.

The implementation of several amendments in employee benefit plans by the end of 2021 along with the new requirements for the coming year continue to bring regulatory changes in areas including welfare plan, flexible spending account (FSA), and hardship distribution. These pose new challenges among practitioners in complying with all the legal developments and addressing critical issues in this field.

The flexible work arrangement has become a norm in the post-pandemic time, presenting hurdles among company decision-makers when it comes to employee classification. Misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor can pose legal risks to employers including liability claims related to employment taxes, interest, and penalties.

The work-from-home setup has rapidly become a trend after businesses started shutting down due to the pandemic. Although this setup can be helpful, it presents unique challenges which employers need to face, particularly in the field of wage and hour law. Typical issues several businesses are struggling with, include claims of unpaid wages, timekeeping inaccuracies, and employee misclassification.

The executive compensation landscape has continuously evolved over the years. Companies have been confronted with shifting regulatory standards, competitive global markets, and economic challenges and demands. These developments require businesses to re-evaluate their existing executive compensation strategies and policies and turn them into a more effective and advanced program to mitigate risk exposure and legal liabilities.